Flights were halted at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for several hours on Tuesday, leading to more than a hundred cancellations and cascading delays. The disruption was caused by security measures put in place to protect Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi during his visit to Washington, D.C..
Commercial flights were unable to take off or land at the airport from 11 a.m. ET until around 3 p.m. According to flight tracking site FlightAware, more than 300 flights were delayed and at least 126 were cancelled.
The disruption unfolded in one of the most congested and tightly controlled stretches of airspace in the United States, where hundreds of daily commercial flights operate alongside military traffic and route around federal buildings in Washington and northern Virginia.
White House and Federal Aviation Administration officials shared timing updates throughout al-Zaidi’s visit in an effort to limit the impact, a senior administration official said. Some aircraft that were already holding in the air were allowed to land, while others waiting on the ground were cleared to depart, the official added. Spokespeople for the FAA and the Department of Transportation declined to comment.
President Trump hosted al-Zaidi at the White House to discuss the future of bilateral relations between the United States and Iraq. It was the Iraqi leader’s first visit to the country since taking office in May.
Trump extended the meeting by inviting al-Zaidi to lunch. “It wasn’t scheduled, but we are going to do it on the fly because we have a tremendous chemistry together,” Trump said on Tuesday morning.
Al-Zaidi’s motorcade left the White House for the Pentagon at 1:30 p.m., later than originally planned, with a security helicopter circling overhead as it travelled through the airspace surrounding Reagan National.
Al-Zaidi became prime minister after Trump threatened to withdraw U.S. support for Iraq if a candidate seen as too closely aligned with Iran won the position. Since taking office, he has had to manage a delicate relationship with neighbouring Iran, which retains significant influence within Iraq. Iraq’s government has pushed for powerful pro-Iranian militias in the country to disarm by 30 September, the date by which U.S. troops are scheduled to leave.
The disruption at Reagan National came against the backdrop of the wider U.S. war with Iran, now in its fourth month, which has raised security concerns both in the Middle East and domestically. Counterterrorism experts have previously cautioned that Iran has sought to take action inside the United States, at times relying on U.S.-based surrogates in attempted kidnappings and murder-for-hire plots against opponents of the regime.
The federal government has also issued warnings over separate, non-Iran-related threats, particularly following recent assassination attempts against Trump.
Photo credit: Matej Kastelic / Shutterstock.com
